Imagine that the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan
Museum in New York were partly closed for renovations for almost a
decade — at the same time. That’s basically what happened in Amsterdam,
with the closings of the Stedelijk, the city’s design and contemporary art museum, in 2004 and the Rijksmuseum
in 2003. The Stedelijk finally reopened at the end of September with a
new, sleek bathtub-like extension, and the Rijksmuseum will reopen in
April with much fanfare after a complete redo by the Spanish architects
Antonio Cruz and Antonio Ortiz. The Van Gogh Museum too, will reopen in
May, after a much shorter renovation.The city will also be celebrating 400 years since thebuilding of its iconic canal ring and the 125th birthday of the Concertgebouw, the city’s concert hall, which will feature performances by Eva-Maria Westbroek and Bernard Haitink among others. To prepare for the wave of visitors, there are several new hotels, from the five-star Conservatorium, to an Andaz designed by the Amsterdam-based design star Marcel Wanders. If you’re lucky, you might score the single suite at a hotel/restaurant/shopping/exhibition space named Droog, for the collective that designed it.